Get home safely

Two Hamilton City Council City Safe officers have gone above and beyond the call of duty, with one digging into his wallet to ensure a young woman made it home safely after a night out.

During the fun-filled Auckland Anniversary weekend in Hamilton for the HSBC New Zealand Sevens held at FMG Stadium Waikato, City Safe Officers were out doing their part to make sure everyone in the central city stayed safe.Jun Valencia and Teresa Swann, two of the friendly City Safe Offices, were on duty on Saturday night (26 January) and came across a young woman who was alone after losing her group of friends.

“The girl was all by herself and needed some help. She was a bit tipsy and couldn’t figure out how to get home after losing her bag, wallet, phone and friends,” says Jun.Jun organised and paid – out of his own pocket – for the woman to get a taxi home.“I have three daughters so I thought, ‘if this was one of my daughters, what would I want someone to do?’.

“I just wanted to make sure she was able to get home safely.”

It’s a job City Safe don’t just do during special events, the team is out every day and patrolling at night on the weekends. They keep a watchful eye over the central city to increase the feeling of safety in the area in conjunction with the CCTV camera network.

The officers are trained to de-escalate any issues, support with moving on antisocial behaviour and also work closely with business owners around safety concerns.

City Safe Manager Paul Blewman says this is just another example of the tireless work his team does, but tends to go under the radar.

“Jun and Teresa did a fantastic job on Saturday, they definitely went above and beyond. It’s so great to see the positive feedback on Facebook about our officers making a difference even though paying for a taxi was a one-off,” says Mr Blewman.

“Our officers go out every day helping to make Hamilton a fantastic and safe place to be.”